TALIBAN militants struck at government buildings in the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan yesterday with suicide bombs, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, wounding 14 people, including two police officers, and provoking fears of a bloody election campaign.
At least three suicide bombers blew themselves up during the onslaught, which began in the early afternoon near a US military base. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, said later that Afghan forces had surrounded the attackers.
The raid came as the United States asked Pakistan for help in ensuring a peaceful election campaign. Islamabad has been asked to send troops to key points along its border with Helmand to stop Taliban militia crossing back and forth.
For the past two weeks, 4,500 US marines have been engaged in Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword), their largest offensive yet. They have grabbed a swathe of territory in southern Helmand.
Although July has been the deadliest month for foreign troops in the eight-year war, with 66 killed, including 20 British men, military officials say the operation has so far faced less resistance than expected.
But this is because the Taliban faded away and officials are well aware that the militants can be eliminated only if Pakistan stops allowing them sanctuary. Border controls led to surprisingly peaceful polls in 2004 and 2005.
The request to Pakistan was made during a visit to Islamabad last week by General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, and General Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador to Kabul. It was reinforced by President Barack Obama’s special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who is visiting the region.
Nato commanders and the Afghan government have long complained about the sanctuary the Taliban enjoy in Pakistan where they send their wounded, train and recruit fighters and raise funds. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader, and his senior associates operate from Quetta, and journalists often receive calls from Taliban spokesmen in Peshawar.
But Pakistan’s military has recently taken a tough new stance after Taliban forces launched a spate of suicide attacks and took over the Swat valley, a former tourist area 70 miles from the capital. “We suddenly realised we could be left an army without a country,” said one general.
However, with Swat almost cleared after three months of fighting and Pakistani troops moving into the border areas of Waziristan to pursue Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, there is concern that Islamabad seems to have no interest in taking on militant groups that are using its territory to attack western forces over the border.
A senior US official said: “We still don’t see any evidence that Islamabad has politically or militarily made a decision to go after the Afghan Taliban.
“As far as we’re concerned, they will only turn the corner when they tell the Quettashura [tribal council], ‘You have a choice – go back home and either negotiate or fight, but you’re not welcome here’.”
McChrystal said last week: “What I would love is for the government of Pakistan to have the ability to eliminate the safe havens that the Afghan Taliban enjoy.”
Briefings by senior Pakistani military indicate that they still divide Taliban into good and bad. “They cause no trouble to us,” replied one general when asked about Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Waziristan warlord closest to Al-Qaeda.
“What we have to consider is what happens when the foreign troops leave Afghanistan,” said another. “If the Taliban then take over, we don’t want to be on the wrong side.”
Pakistan has objected that American operations in southern Afghanistan are forcing more militants over its side of the border.
“There is a need for better coordination at the military level,” said Shah Mehmud Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister. “Pushing the buck over won’t solve the problem as with such a porous border the buck will just go back again.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times in Islamabad, Qureshi insisted that his country would no longer give sanctuary to Mullah Omar and the Afghan Taliban.
“We are clear we have to deal with all elements that are challenging the writ of the government and making Pakistan or other places insecure,” he said. “We don’t want our soil, our national territory, to be used against anyone.”
“We’re no more differentiating between good terrorists and bad terrorists. They’ve created havoc, made our environment insecure, and wherever they are, we’ll take them on.”
Asked specifically if this would include Mullah Omar and his Quetta shura, which runs the Afghan Taliban, the minister replied: “Absolutely, we’ll be taking them on.”
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